Australia’s PR disasters of 2015

BELLE Gibson, Bronwyn Bishop, Joe Hockey and Volkswagen have topped a public relations industry poll for being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons this year.

Shoba Rao

News Corp Australia NetworkDecember 14, 20152:59pm

Caught out ... German car manufacturer Volkswagen became embroiled in an emissions scandal this year. Picture: APSource:Supplied

FROM Australia’s political controversies to Belle Gibson’s tearful confessions, these were the moments when companies and people were in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

According to the PR Disasters blog — an unofficial industry watchdog — these are the year’s top five public relations mistakes.

Now in their 10th year, the Australian PR Disaster Awards use a global media monitoring and data firm to assess the volume of mentions a company, person or issue gets in traditional and online media platforms.

PR Disasters analyst and author Gerry McCusker said the firm has analysed if content has a negative or positive sentiment surrounding it.

To be a disaster, the incident must have attracted ongoing negative media coverage.

While the data cannot differentiate between sarcasm and black humour, the companies and people on Mr McCusker’s list were the ones who acquired the most media mentions (online and offline) with the most negative sentiment linked to them.

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in had a “defeat device” — or software — in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US. The company has also revealed an internal investigation found that 800,000 more vehicles showed “irregularities” on carbon emissions including petrol engines for the first time. The scandal has spread worldwide, as far as Australia, with class actions being filed, cars recalled and an inquiry launched.

Caught out ... the Volkswagen scandal has spread across the globe. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“I’ve not been intentionally untruthful. I’ve been completely open when speaking about what was my reality and what is my reality now,” she told Brown.

Gibson said she believed she had cancer until earlier this year. She said she uncovered the truth about her situation and was about to tell the media herself. The date she had picked for her own announcement, coincidentally, had been 10 days after the media broke the story about her deceptions.

Gibson also took in over $1 million in profits from her cookbook and wellness app, The Whole Pantry. She also failed to donate $300,000 from the sales of the app to at least five charities as promised, but criminal charges were not pursued. Her app has since been pulled.

4. Bronwyn Bishop — her use of a taxpayer-funded 80km round-trip from Melbourne to Geelong for $5227 for a Liberal party fundraiser. While the trip occurred in November 2014, the revelations led to her travel expenses being investigated. She was eventually forced her to step down as Speaker of the House. She got 4,390 media mentions.

But when comparing the worst PR disasters of the last decade in Australia, the data found the top spot was taken out by:

1. Essendon’s supplements scandal

In analysing 89,685 pieces of media coverage, Mr McCusker said that sporting teams tended to become “soft targets” for PR disasters because everyone gets “passionate” about sport and everyone wants to have their say.

“A lot of stakeholders involved in the issue had the chance to vent their spleen, and it went on for a long time as well,” he said.

“When we are talking about people’s passions football clubs are going to be soft targets.”

In second place with 46,439 media mentions was:

2. Julia Gillard’s short-lived carbon tax legislation

Australia’s former prime minister ruled out the use of a carbon tax back in 2010, but later unveiled a carbon tax plan in 2011 that was successfully passed through parliament. The carbon tax began on July 1, 2012 and raised $3.8 billion in its first six months, according to a budget update in February 2013. The scheme was eventually dumped by Tony Abbott when he became prime minister.

Moved on ... former prime minister Julia Gillard attended the Carbon Expo a day after Australia passed its controversial pollution tax. Picture: AFPSource:News Limited

Mr Abbott also said he would “shirtfront” Russian president Vladimir Putin before they met at a G20 meeting in Brisbane.

While the incidents attracted 29,983 media mentions, Mr McCusker was surprised to see that Ms Gillard’s carbon tax was rated as being more of a disaster than Mr Abbott’s actions.

“I was surprised that the negative talk about the carbon tax outweighed Mr Abbott’s winking incident or his shirtfronting comment he made, as there was so much negative coverage on Mr Abbott while he was prime minister as well,” he said.

On camera ... Tony Abbott giving a wink.Source:The Daily Telegraph

“I think it shows there are more people out there who are talking about different topics more than others.”

In fourth place was Qantas for two reasons.

4. Qantas — the airline grounded its fleet in response to unions’ industrial action in 2011. It also suffered a social media backlash after a competition inviting Twitter followers to win a pair of first class pyjamas by tweeting their idea of a luxury experience descended into angry customers sharing their gripes.

Mr McCusker said the incidents both occurred at a time when companies were starting to engage in social media and the airline made a tough business decision.

Mr McCusker said that while there was more choice in how people and companies can respond to a PR crisis, there are lessons that can be learnt from every incident.

He also said that many companies operate from “older crisis management paradigms” that need to be updated.

“Sometimes saying nothing is better, so not to inflame the issue,” he said.

“But if they know they’ve made a mistake they have to put their hand up early.

“Social media demands authenticity and in some cases, it is much better to fess up to a mistake. Organisations need to reconfigure their crisis plans to meet the demands of social media and online media. While some responses can save you in court, they cannot always save you in the court of public opinion.”